Portable Scanner Recommendations?

I recently saw a portable scanner on a TV program. I thought it was "Rachael Ray," but couldn't find anything there. Perhaps on "The View"? Anyway, I couldn't find reference to it again, but thought of this forum. Sure enough, some of you are singing the praises of the Flip Pal. In my case, I don't want the scanner as much for photos, although it certainly has some appeal there as well. Rather, I do a lot of reading and find myself tearing pages out of magazines or putting sticky flags in books (recipes, products I like, product reviews, a paint color I love, etc.). I read in the living room while my Canon all-in-one printer (not wireless) is in my office and requires that I stand to put the item on the flatbed and remove it. That means my tear sheets rapid grow into an unorganized mess in a little drawer in the living room. I would love to be able to instead scan the desired items and organize them in appropriate folders on my computer.

Other than the Flip Pal, discussions on scanners seemed quite dated and technology changes so quickly. I think the wand-style scanners look like it might be difficult to get a good image, especially since my severe Fibromyalgia means that my hands often shake a bit. That makes the Flip Pal or similar "mini-flatbed" scanners more appealing. A quick search on Amazon.com shows a number of non-wand options, some significantly less expensive. I look forward to hearing everyone's input!

Thanks, ladies. I have the less expensive Flip camcorder and like it. As noted in the subject line, the Flip Pal is definitely intriguing. I was just wondering if anyone has something else and what motivated them to choose an option other than the Flip Pal.

For small scans up to 5x7 I have a Pandigital scanner which also scans to a SD card.
It's small and scans to 600 dpi Jpeg image. I have model PANSCN04. It's worked wonderfully for me, but does not have some of the nice features of the flip pal as it has to be plugged in and only scans paper up to 5x7. It also doesn't show what you are scanning, but you have to put the SD card into your computer to see what you've got.
That said, however I love it and have used it a lot!

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Posted 25 May 2011 - 06:43 AM

Thanks, ladies. I have the less expensive Flip camcorder and like it. As noted in the subject line, the Flip Pal is definitely intriguing. I was just wondering if anyone has something else and what motivated them to choose an option other than the Flip Pal.

Victoria in Stormy Texas

Honestly, I hadn't even thought about the possiblities of doing this before the Flip-Scan and I didn't look into it further once I discovered Flip-Pal but I think it would be awesome for scanning pages as you are talking about.......It's so handy - so small and easy to just keep right beside you - and given that it's battery operated, I LOVE it! The price is right and it scans to a card as well which I personally like because then I can save it to my laptop or my IPad or anywhere I want.

I'll admit that when Ro recommended the Flip-Pal, I didn't even look elsewhere. I'm very happy with it and the fact that it is cordless and can go anywhere is a plus. I had not thought of using it for clippings, what a brilliant way to use it though. I have years worth of old magazines I've been sorting through, clipping and then having to organize into notebooks. You have opened up new ideas for simply scanning and saving digitally.

Looks great and how nice to be able to get those older photos scanned without worry of damaging them! I fear my Flip Pal budget will be going to replacing a couple of worn tires, but hope springs eternal that one will come my way. |;-)